Experimental evidence on promotion of electric and improved biomass cookstoves

Abstract

Improved cookstoves (ICS) can deliver “triple wins” by improving household health, local environments, and global climate. Yet their potential is in doubt because of low and slow diffusion, likely because of constraints imposed by differences in culture, geography, institutions, and missing markets. We offer insights about this challenge based on a multiyear, multiphase study with nearly 1,000 households in the Indian Himalayas. In phase I, we combined desk reviews, simulations, and focus groups to diagnose barriers to ICS adoption. In phase II, we implemented a set of pilots to simulate a mature market and designed an intervention that upgraded the supply chain (combining marketing and home delivery), provided rebates and financing to lower income and liquidity constraints, and allowed households a choice among ICS. In phase III, we used findings from these pilots to implement a field experiment to rigorously test whether this combination of upgraded supply and demand promotion stimulates adoption. The experiment showed that, compared with zero purchase in control villages, over half of intervention households bought an ICS, although demand was highly price-sensitive. Demand was at least twice as high for electric stoves relative to biomass ICS. Even among households that received a negligible price discount, the upgraded supply chain alone induced a 28 percentage-point increase in ICS ownership. Although the bundled intervention is resource-intensive, the full costs are lower than the social benefits of ICS promotion. Our findings suggest that market analysis, robust supply chains, and price discounts are critical for ICS diffusion.

One‐Off Subsidies and Long‐Run Adoption—Experimental Evidence on Improved Cooking Stoves in Senegal

“…This is most notably due to a highly price‐responsive demand. For example, Cohen and Dupas (2010) and Tarozzi et al (2014) observe very high price elasticities for insecticide‐treated bednets, Kremer and Miguel (2007) for deworming drugs, Ashraf, Berry, and Shapiro (2010) for water disinfectants, and both Mobarak et al (2012) and Pattanayak et al (2019) observe the same for improved cooking stoves (ICS). Based on this observation, Mobarak et al (2012) make a case for subsidies or free distribution as policies to overcome this type of under‐adoption.…”

“…Based on this observation, Mobarak et al (2012) make a case for subsidies or free distribution as policies to overcome this type of under‐adoption. In fact, Bensch and Peters (2015) and Pattanayak et al (2019) show that free distribution can be an effective instrument to trigger rapid short‐term ICS uptake among the poor.…”

Preferences and the Effectiveness of Behavior-Change Interventions: Evidence from Adoption of Improved Cookstoves in India

“…The first stratum consisted of GPs where the NGO partner for the study had done prior work unrelated to ICS promotion, while the other included villages selected to be observationally similar to the former using nearest neighbor matching based on Census characteristics. The sample therefore may not be representative of rural Uttarakhand; still, one advantage of this design is that it allows us to argue that the results we obtain are not wholly dependent on prior Within each of the 38 GPs, we randomly selected households according to the size of the GP, as further detailed elsewhere (Pattanayak et al, 2019). The sampling strategy ensured that surveys were collected throughout the entire extent of the GP and created variation in the number of hamlets sampled from each GP.…”

Energy Efficiency or Conservation for Mitigating Climate Change?

“…Efficiency Potential (%) Pattanayak et al [44] have claimed that 'Three billion people rely on traditional stoves and solid fuels'. Given the very low efficiency of traditional stoves in low income countries (as low as 5%), there is clearly a great scope for energy efficiency (and indoor air quality) improvement.…”